Can bitHound Replicate TinyHippos Success Story?

Kitchener-based software analytics platform bitHound recently closed a $2 million fundraising round led by Michael Wekerle, with an assist from BDC Capital and other unspecified investors.

Wekerle was effusive about the company’s prospects.

“bitHound is redefining the way developers and management work together, creating a tool that will foster conversation among developer teams,” he said. “We are thrilled with the momentum the company is demonstrating and believe that bitHound is one of the rising startups that is paving the way for improved code quality and software analytics.”

Their product allows coders to both optimize the strength and verify the integrity of their code mid-process.

“It’s not hard to write code. But it is hard to write high-quality, maintainable software. Our goal is to become a trusted member of a development team, providing valuable insights and actionable recommendations leading to great software,” said bitHound CEO Dan Silivestru. “This funding will propel us further into creating a tool where developers can use real-time predictive analysis to create the best software possible.”

In 2011, bitHound co-founders, Dan Silivestru and P.J. Lowe, sold their mobile app development company TinyHippos to Research In Motion (now BlackBerry). Founded in 2009, TinyHippos developed the Ripple Mobile Environment Emulator, a tool for testing and debugging cross-platform mobile apps.

The team had a two-year commitment to BlackBerry, after which they began work on bitHound, with co-founder Gord Tanner.

At the end of their BlackBerry commitment, the TinyHippos team celebrated in style with an epic Las Vegas weekend and a little time off. But they soon got the itch to move forward on bitHound.

JavaScript developers can sign up for beta access on bitHound’s website.

The bitHound engine can evaluate a programming solution’s viability, or even its likelihood to be delivered on time, by looking at its complexity, its bug density, or when and how the code has been altered by during the development process.

The importance of maintaining the integrity of a piece of software’s code becomes crucially important as the team size increases.

Kitchener is a different town today compared to when Silivestru, Lowe and Tanner started out. When Communitech Hub was just starting out, they rented space in the Tannery building for $7.25/square foot (now approximately $25/square foot) and the Kitchener-Waterloo area is exploding with companies, where it used to be that RIM and Desire2Learn were the big players in town.

Whether bitHound ends up seeking a big exit, à la TinyHippos, remains to be seen.